Chronicles of coaching American football in Sicily (2008 and 2009), in Sweden (2010 and 2016), in Switzerland (2012), winning a Division III National Championship in France (2012-13) and in Spain (2015 and 2016) as well as walking the Camino de Santiago in August-September of 2010.

About Me

I have been married to Laurie for over 45 years. Our oldest son, Andy, lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with his wife Jenn and their son Kevin. Our youngest son Mike lives in Oxnard, California with his wife Vanessa and their kids Jacob and Mary. Although I retired from teaching in June of 2007, the 2015 football season marked my 45th year of coaching football at five high schools in Southern California's Ventura County - Thousand Oaks, Westlake, Rio Mesa, Buena and Newbury Park. In 2008, I opted to try something totally different in my coaching career and started coaching in Europe. My EuroBall stops have been in Catania, Sicily in 2008 and 2009, Hässleholm, Sweden in 2010, Thun, Switzerland in 2012, Lyon, France in 2012-13 with the 12-0 National Champion Bron-Villeurbanne Falcons, Murcia, Spain in 2015, Rivas, Spain in 2016 and finally Upplands-Väsby, Sweden in the Spring of 2016 and 2017. Join me as I explore and chronicle my newest adventures coaching American football in Europe. My European touring also included a 500 mile Pilgrimage Walk on the Camino de Santiago in Spain in 2010.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Getting Back on Track vs. Dos Pueblos

Dos Pueblos (2-2)

at Rio Mesa (3-1)

It was bounce back week at Rio Mesa for America's favorite freshman football team. For the first time last week, the Spartans tasted defeat and, as it turned out, didn't like it! Our players responded with a solid week of practice and a great effort in this week's game.

That is not to say that there were not the usual freshman oddities in the pre-game locker room. After seven weeks of practice, a scrimmage and four games one of our defensive starters was observed asking our starting nose guard, Zach Saldana, how the football belt worked. Of course, Zach was more than happy to show him the intricacies of the double D-ring belt. It was wonderful to see teaching and learning taking place plus the sense of awe in the eye of the player Zach was teaching brought a tear to my eye!

Then I observed one of our back-up players putting on his white practice pants with all his knee, thigh, hip and tail pads in place. We wear black pants on game days. Since I was busy preparing equipment for the game, I asked Blake Selig, our fine wide receiver/defensive back who was not suiting up for the game, to tell the player to get the right pants on. Blake then informed me that this was not a mistake, the player in question likes to wear his game pants over his fully loaded practice pants on game days... JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU'D SEEN IT ALL!

#3 DE James "Batman" Turner

James and #11 Tanner Wrout tracking down Dos Pueblos' excellent running back #23 Joshua Bartley. He was hard to handle all game long.

#32 Falcon/Tight End Ben Quantock

Ben picked off this pass on the opening series of the game and returned it 41 yards for the games first touchdown! He would also catch 5 passes for 89 yards and a two point PAT.

#26 Tailback/Free Safety Darren Gales

Darren had a very solid day with 7 carries for 41 yards and a TD. He was also in on 7 tackles and broke up a pass.

#15 Tailback/Cornerback Roderick White

In our Tailback by committee scheme, Roderick had 5 carries for 58 yards and 2 TD's. He also made 8 tackles.

#11 Tailback/Fullback/Falcon Tanner Wrout

Although he occasionally looked like a pregnant longhorn on ice during the first two weeks of practice, Tanner has, BY FAR, been our best, most consistent player in the first half of the season.

His work load against the Chargers was no exception as he had 10 carries for 94 yards and a TD and 4 pass receptions for 52 yards and another TD. On defense, Tanner had 8 tackles, intercepted 2 passes that he returned 10 yards, 1 tackle for a loss of 2 yards and a QB sack that resulted in a 10 yard loss.

His best play of the day in my opinion was on a sweep away from his side by Dos Pueblos' good tailback. It looked like he was gone for a long touchdown but Tanner did not give up on the play and chased him down after a 58 yard run to make a touchdown saving tackle at the 9 yard line. GREAT EFFORT!!!

#40 Tight End Mitch Haerterich

Mitch had a good day catching two passes for 16 yards including this two point PAT grab.

"Me and My Shadow", a great song from days gone by

#67 Caleb Litten and I enjoying a chat at halftime about the current political scene in Guatemala.

#7 Quarterback Trenton Thornton

Another EXCELLENT game by Trenton as he completed 10 of 11 passes for 154 yards, a TD and a two point PAT.

#10 Kicker Jason Ah Sue

Jason has a great work ethic and made 3 of his 4 PAT attempts against the Chargers.

#55 Outside Linbacker Sam Zielsdorf

Good pressure on the Dos Pueblos QB here, Sam was in on 3 tackles including a tackle for a loss of 3 yards.

One of the great things about this season to date is that we have had 3 games with 5th Quarters to insure that all of our players who dress out get a chance to compete during 10 offensive and 10 defensive plays after the regular game is over if they didn't get many reps in regulation.

Fortunately, the two games without 5th quarters were games in which we were able to get big leads early and played everyone who dressed out during the regular course of the game.

It has been great to know that for five straight weeks, the only kids who did not get a chance to compete were the ones who were unable to dress due to injury or missed practice time.

#34 Tailback Josh Quolas..."BUST A MOVE!"

#23 Tailback Devin Hinds with his version of the Heisman Trophy pose

To sum up our game, it was a great team win with several players contributing mightily.

That adds up to Total Offense figures of 41 plays for 369 yards, 5 TD's, two 2 point PAT's and a very neat 9.0 yards per snap average!

Defensively, 20 different players made at least one tackle. We returned 3 interceptions for a total of 51 yards and a TD. We also had 3 QB sacks for -23 yards and 5 tackles for losses totaling another -15 yards.

It was a great way to finish our non-league schedule at 4 wins and 1 loss. Next week we open the Pacific View League season at home Thursday at 4:00 p.m. against a Channel Islands team that is reportedly 5-0 on the season.